Assignment 1 - Step by step

This post will feature methods and step-by-steps of making my e-wallpaper. The theme choosen for my e-wallpaper is Penang Dragon Boat festival. I chose this festival because I'm attracted to the boats design and would like to acknowledge people the existence of this festival. Please refer to my previous posts for more information regarding the festival. So, let's get started!

Below are the pictures choosen for the e-wallpaper.


I start the project by opening up a new file according to the project's specification, that is, A4 size.
The first step I would do is creating appropiate background for the e-wallpaper. What comes in my mind is oriental pattern and shapes on an old paper. So, I open up a file containing a texture of old paper, which is downloaded from mayang.com.
This is how the paper looks like.The paper is quite smaller than the original file size. Therefore, I used free transfrom or Ctrl + T on the paper and enlarge it until it has the same size with the file. And then, I downloaded an oriental pattern from dezignus.com and put the pattern into a new layer positioned above the layer containing the paper texture. The result looks like this:


The same method is used to resize the pattern. Afterwards, I clicked on the lock transparent pixel on the layer containing the pattern to recolour it with a new one.

Next, I lowered the opacity of the layer so that the pattern can blend well with the background. Now, onto the main part of the wallpaper, that is, pictures and images. Before that, I created a shape on the wallpaper with pen tool and filled it with white colour. The option for fill colour with pen tool can be found by right-clicking your mouse.



Again, I lowered the opacity of the shape. Then, I inserted a number of images within the shape area. This part will be a bit tricky and confusing but I will try to explain as clear as possible.
First, I put an image accordingly and I cropped the picture using rectangular selection tools and Ctrl + X to fit in well within the shape. Note that I increased the opacity of the shape.The reason why I increased the opacity is to allow full selection on the shape when using magic wand tool, which is the next step I used to fit the picture into the shape. After that, I right-clicked and chose the option 'Select Inverse' to make the selection went outside of the shape area.
Afterwards, I cropped the picture and the result looked like this:


I did some rendering on the picture so that it looked neat and tidy. Same process are used with the other pictures. Then, when I am done rendering all the pictures neatly, I merged the layers of all the images. Before I forgot, I used Blur tool for the leftmost pictures so that the picture, which is actually made up of 2 images, blend well with each other.

New layer is created and some lines are added to give out the dynamic feel on the wallpaper. Also, I used the special effect called 'outer glow' for the lines in which can be found by clicking the 'fx' button on the lower part of the layer panel. I did some adjustments on colour balance to make the image appeared warmer.

Next, I duplicated the layer containing the merged images, put it above the original one, clicked on filter -> blur -> gaussian blur and change the layer mode to Overlay. The images became quite nostalgic and warm looking.

Now that the images part are done, it's time to put some text on the wallpaper. I typed in 'Penang Dragon Boat fetisval at the left lower part of the wallpaper. Then, I manipulated the shape of the text to make it look interesting.
For the finishing touch, I lowered down the opacity of the background colour and voila! Oh yes, not to forget the flattening image part, this is how you do it:
Click on the button shown above and choose the option 'Flatten image'.


That is all for my e-wallpaper project. Until next time.

Photo retouching

This post will briefly explain about the basic of photo retouching methods and steps as well as Masks and Channels in Photoshop. I will start with introduction of tools and settings essential for photo retouching.

Spot Healing Brush tool, Healing Brush tool, Patch tool and Red-eye tool.

A very useful tools for correcting any flaws or mistakes in a picture. If you are about to edit a picture of your face, these tools can help you remove pimples and scar by just doing some clicks.

Blur tool, Sharpen tool and Smudge tool

Great tools to smoothen a rough surface or sharpen an unclear object.

Dodge tool, Burn tool and Sponge tool


Tools used to create shines and dark spots as well as enchance the colour of the picture.

Clone Stamp tool and Pattern Stamp tool


Nearly the same as the healing brush tools, helps to cover flaws and mistakes in a picture.

Eraser tool, Background Eraser tool and Magic Eraser tool


Tools for erasing. Magic eraser acts like a magic wand tool except it will immediately get rid of the part you have selected.

Filter gallery


The settings can be found under 'Filter'. Serves a lot of handy and nifty effects for your picture.

Adjustments

This settings can be found under 'Image' -> 'Adjustments'. The settings can help you to enchance and change the colour of your picture.

Next, I will be explaining about the exercise I have done during Computer Graphic 2 tutorial class.

This is the picture I have used for the task. The image is opened through Photoshop.
Next thing I've done is I erased the pimples and scars on my face using Blur tool.


See the difference? The skin looked much smoother than before. Next, I used Healing Brush tool to get rid of pimples and scars completely.


No pimples and scars anymore. Then, I went to Image -> Adjustment -> Brightness and Contrast to brighten the picture.


Dramatic, isn't it? After that, I used Image -> Adjustment -> Curves to make the picture appears warmer.


More dramatic than before. Lastly, I used Gradient tool for the finishing touch.


This is it! The end piece of my work.

That is all for now. For next post, I will bring you the basics of Mask and Channels in Photoshop. Until next time!

Selection Tools

In photo-editing, you would find that some particular part of the picture you have choosen need to be corrected. In order to do this, you have to use selection tools to easily edit the part you want without corrupting the picture. Let me introduce the selection tools available in Photoshop:

1. Marquee tools

These selection tool is used to pick out the part you want with the shape given. For example, if you choose the rectangular marquee tool, it will create a rectangular shape marquee when you drag it and the area within the rectangular shape will be affected when you start editing the part.

2. Lasso tools

These tools is much more useful than the marquee tools when you want to select a part with a very complicated shape or area.

3. Magic wand tool
A very handy tool for quick editing. It will immediately select an area based on the colour in the picture.

The following pictures show how each selection tools works.

With rectangular marquee tool.


With elliptical marquee tool.


With single row marquee tool.


With single column marquee tool.

For the marquee tools, all you have to do is click and drag the marquee along the part that you want to work on.


With normal lasso tool. This tool is best used with a tablet rather than a mouse.


With polygonal lasso tool. For mouse users, this is the best tool to use. However, note that this tool is hard to use when making curve selections.


With magnetic lasso tool.


With magic wand selection tool. Be careful when using this tool because it will automatically select an area once you click on it.

This is what I've learned on selection tools. Next post will be about photo retouching. Until next time!

Assignment - E-wallpaper

I have decided to do Penang Dragon Boat Festival as the main theme for my e-wallpaper. The following picture is the logo for the festival representing the dragon boats.
Introduction to Penang Dragon Boat Festival

'Penang's first Dragon Boat Race was held way back in 1956 to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the Municipality of George Town and 10 years later the race was revived as part of the Pesta Pulau Pinang. The Pesta races was originally confined to participation from the local teams such as teams from Government Department, associations and commercial establishments. However, this soon change when in 1979, the boat festival became an international tourism carnival with 2 participation from overseas, Singapore and Hong Kong. The Penang International Dragon Boat Festival has participating teams all over the world, to name a few, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, Norway, Macau, Thailand, Japan, Britain, West Germany, USA and others.'

Taken from: http://www.angelfire.com/sports/pidbf/

These are some pictures of dragon boats:



More info regarding the festival can be found through these links:
www.penangdragonboat.gov.my/
www.angelfire.com/sports/pidbf/

Until next time!